Jittery Labour party is on the road to civil war

LABOUR’S poll lead over the Conservatives has been slashed amid claims that Ed Miliband’s party is descending into civil war.

Ministers in the Labour party, run by Ed Miliband, are allegedly turning on each other

As a new analysis of recent polls showed Labour’s average lead plunged from 11 points to five last month, a third Labour MP went public with concerns over the party’s election prospects under Mr Miliband.

Geraint Davies added his voice to earlier criticism by his backbench colleagues George Mudie and Graham Stringer – saying Labour was failing to take the fight to the Tories.

He said the party had yet to give ­voters a “compelling case” as to why Britain would be ­better off under Labour.

Mr Davies said the party leadership needed to spell out its riposte to the Tory refrain that “Labour messed up the economy”.

By failing to do so, he said, Labour was made to “look like a shamefaced schoolboy admitting responsibility by omission”.

The MP warned against letting that impression gather strength in the run up to the 2015 general election, whose result he said was “in the balance”.

Mr Davies’s comments came as a “poll of polls” put Labour on 38 per cent support, the Tories on 33, and the Lib Dems and Ukip level on 11. It is the smallest Labour lead since March last year.

Geraint Davies has said Labour is failing to take the fight to the Tories

Last night Tory Treasury minister David Gauke said Labour were “turning on each other”. He said: “The reality is that they don’t really have anything to say and they’re now turning on each other.

“I think their own backbenchers are beginning to realise the Labour leadership hasn’t really got a voice in this either.”

I think their own backbenchers are beginning to realise the Labour leadership hasn’t really got a voice in this either

David Gauke

Seizing on earlier criticism by Mr Stringer that the Shadow Cabinet had been “almost invisible” this summer, Mr Gauke added: “Just look at today’s supposed re-launch on the cost of living and yet none of the senior Labour figures are around to support it.” Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie denied a split between Mr Davies and the Labour leadership, saying the MP was simply pointing out the need to contest a “Conservative lie” on the economy.

He claimed Labour had “lots of goodies in store”.

But Mark Ferguson, editor of the LabourList blog, admitted the party was ­“running out of time” to put its case. He said its dossier on the cost of living crisis was “one hell of a damp squib”. He added: “Our lack of vision – and, perhaps, strategy – is the root cause of the disquiet in the Parliamentary Labour Party and the malaise in the wider party.”